HEARTH is a core electronic collection
of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines.
Titles published
between 1850 and 1950 were selected and ranked by teams of scholars
for their great historical importance. The first phase of this project
focused on books published between 1850 and 1925 and a small number
of journals. Future phases of the project will include books published
between 1926 and 1950, as well as additional journals. The full text
of these materials, as well as bibliographies and essays on
the wide
array
of
subjects relating to Home Economics, are all freely accessible on
this
site. This is the first time a collection of this scale and scope has
been made available.

"Home
Economists in early 20th century America
had a major role in the Progressive Era, the development of
the welfare state, the triumph of modern hygiene and scientific
medicine, the application of scientific research in a number
of industries, and the popularization of important research
on child development, family health, and family economics. What
other group of American women did so much, all over the country,
and got so little credit? ... We must do everything we can to
preserve and organize records and materials from this important
female ghetto."

-
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow and
Professor, Cornell University College of Human Ecology and author
of The Body Project: an Intimate History of American Girls.